Air cell on side of egg

[Dandichook]

I have a batch of coturnix quail eggs in the incubator. Today is day 9, and as I was candling the other day I realized one of the eggs has the air cell on the side of the egg, not the round end.

That egg clearly had a live chick in it as of that candling. I didn't have a flashlight strong enough to candle the eggs when we first set them, so it has been in our roller style turner the entire incubation, otherwise I would have incubated pointy side up...i figure now there's no point since it seems to be developing okay. The air cell is secure, not floating.

How likely is the chick to make it to hatch? Will we need to do anything special for it to pip?

Edit: clicked send too early!!

 

[MGG]

I have a batch of coturnix quail eggs in the incubator. Today is day 9, and as I was candling the other day I realized one of the eggs has the air cell on the side of the egg, not the round end.

That egg clearly had a live chick in it as of that candling. I didn't have a flashlight strong enough to candle the eggs when we first set them, so it has been in our roller style turner the entire incubation, otherwise I would have incubated pointy side up...i figure now there's no point since it seems to be developing okay. The air cell is secure, not floating.

How likely is the chick to make it to hatch? Will we need to do anything special for it to pip?

Edit: clicked send too early!!

Were these shipped eggs? Chances are, he'll be fine. I've had the same thing happen before and it doesn't seem to really affect the hatch at all.

Pointy side up is bad. Never ever ever incubate eggs (or even store them) pointy side up.
Incubating fat end up in a turner is done sometimes. I personally do not like doing it that way either though. And gamebirds seem to do better incubated on their sides too.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

I agree, they still can hatch.
I put them air cell up at lockdown.

 

[Dandichook]

Were these shipped eggs? Chances are, he'll be fine. I've had the same thing happen before and it doesn't seem to really affect the hatch at all.

Pointy side up is bad. Never ever ever incubate eggs (or even store them) pointy side up.
Incubating fat end up in a turner is done sometimes. I personally do not like doing it that way either though. And gamebirds seem to do better incubated on their sides too.

We drove them home from 2hrs away--i thought we were pretty gentle, but I guess not! Thanks for the reassurance, I'm glad to hear. Will put him air cell side up when the time comes!!

Ahh yeah sorry. I meant to write pointy side down lol. I was in a hurry earlier. Interesting, I didn't realize it would make a difference by species! Glad we went with side roller turners, then!

 

[little-beep]

I had 6 quail eggs hatch from a side roller incubator - all eggs were on their sides and the turner kicked in to do very slow turns every 2 hours. The air cells were all intact on the eggs and located at the fat end, but every single chick pipped straight out the SIDE of the egg and didn't go thru the air cell at all. Healthy little chicks -- one died the next day - was very weak. Does the side roller cause the chicks to position themselves that way?